The Soba Bedrock #4 Hand Plane

Soba Bedrock #4 Smoothing Hand Plane

Soba Industries, India's number one maker of hand tools, has come up with a bedrock hand plane which is the first of its kind in this country. All hand planes made in India so far have been Bailey type planes. I was given a prototype of the plane to check out.

First impressions were good as is the case with most Sobha tools. The machining, the materials used in the construction, attention to detail and so on are all very good. The Soba #4 Bedrock is a nice looking plane with a Indian Rosewood handle and tote, a uniformly ground sole and adequately buffed parts.

The Bailey and Bedrock type planes were both originally developed by the famous hand tools maker Stanley. The bedrock planes were made over a 50-year period till about 1943 and then discontinued. These planes still command a premium in the hand tools market and premium hand plane makers such as the US-based Lie-Nielsen fashion their hand planes after this type.

The essential difference between the Bailey and Bedrock type planes is in the frog and the manner in which it mates with the base of the plane. The Bailey planes have multiple contact points in the base on which the frog rests while the bedrock planes have one flat precision ground base on which the base of the frog with its flat matching underside rests.

Base difference in the Bailey type (LEFT) and the Bedrock (RIGHT)

Different frog design in the Bailey type (LEFT)and the Bedrock (RIGHT)

The frog of the Bedrock plane perfectly fits the base in a manner that eliminates any slop or lateral movement of the frog once it is in place.

Some hand plane experts contend that the bedrock type plane is superior because of the frog design and the fact that its rests precisely and perfectly over a large flat contact area. This theoretically causes less chatter and therefore makes the plane a better performer than its Bailey counterpart.

This view is contested by some who believe the Bailey type planes can be as good and the design of the frog does not make a radical difference in performance. I am of the latter view and believe that any well-tuned, well-made hand plane will do the job well.  But a superior plane can make the task of tuning that much easier.

A set of three nuts at the back of a bedrock plane control the movement of the blade

The other advantage of the Bedrock plane is the ease with which the opening of the mouth can be adjusted. There is no need, as in the Bailey type planes, to remove the frog for this kind of adjustment. In the Bedrock plane, two screws at the back of the frog below the blade adjustment wheel need to be loosened and another nut between the two be turned to move the blade in or out.

Agnay Chuttani, CEO, Soba Industries

Agnay Chuttani, CEO of Soba Industries, says he decided to develop a bedrock plane because he wanted to provide an affordable option for woodworkers given that the bedrock planes being made today are very expensive - some cost upwards of US $ 350 a piece!

Chuttani explains that bedrock planes are more difficult to make and the material that goes into their making more expensive. For instance, his bedrock planes, like some of their other newer hand planes, will use thicker than normal 3mm blades made of high carbon steel. He is also setting up a new casting process and sourcing better components.

Quality, he explains, is also dependent on the materials, inputs and manufacturing processes chosen, and therefore ultimately ofncost. For instance, a lot of top-quality Western planes use cryogenically treated A2 steel for their blades which adds significantly to costs as do the laser cutting methods used to form the blades.

His challenge is to produce a top-notch tool at a fraction of the cost of similar Western ones. His clients in the West want hand tools alternatives they can price for the mass market but not ones that are deficient in any way. That can be a tall order indeed.

Perfecting the Soba bedrock plane will therefore take some extra doing. For, there are obvious glitches. This bedrock plane is a good tool but I came across a couple of issues with it.

The first problem was with the blade: it's back had been ground badly leaving a distinct hollow towards the end. Preparing a blade requires the back to be as flat as possible.  Levelling the back of this blade proved to be a long and arduous task.

It took hours on coarse diamond plates and eventually I had to switch to Japanese ceramic stones which worked better with the hard steel of the Soba blade.

Low Area at the back of the blade

After much honing, the hollow disappeared only to be replaced with a low areas towards the crucial end of the blade which required even more work

Even then I could not manage to entirely flatten the back and the very tip remained a few microns below the rest. I will eventually hone the back of the blade flat again but only when I have the time and inclination.

The other problem was with the handle which was loose and would not tighten. It rattled and made planing impossible. I eventually fixed the problem partially by inserting a small washer into the hole at the top of the handle, then re-inserted and re-tightened the brass screw.

The Flatness of the sole can be checked with a feeler gauge

I checked the flatness of the sole with a feeler gauge and was satisfied. For extra measure, I polished the sole on 600, 800 and 1,000 grit wet and dry sandpaper. The sole felt good.

The blade required a little bit of lateral adjustment but not too much. In the end, it worked well on a piece of Sapele. Sapele can be a difficult wood to plane because of its rising and unpredictable grain. But this piece at least planed well and came out very smooth.

In all, I am pleased with the Soba plane. Its maker, Soba Industries, have got the design and engineering right. And if they can fix the glitches mentioned before they begin full scale production, I do believe they would have a clear winner.

Indranil Banerjie
4 May 2019